Process of oxidizing atmospheric nitrogen.



N 850,392. PATENTED APR. 16, 1907 A. NEUBURGER.

PROCESS OF OXIDIZI NG ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN APPLICATION rum) 1130.24.1904.

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' "Application file'glhecenilier 24,1904. Serial hi0. 233,263. 7

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Be it known'that I, ALBERT NEUBiJ RGER, a" centage of water causescomparatively high cannot.be kept dry. permanentlpere gs citizen of theGerman' Empire, and a resident ofj'Berlin, Germany, (whose post oflice address is N o. 4 Courbierestrasse,) have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Process of Oxidizing Atmospheric Nitrogen, of which thefoll'owing is a specification. .The present inventionrelates to a'process for electrically producing nitric acid and its compounds.

- 'tlie c'ase of all experiments relating to the roduction of nitric; acid by an electrical met 'od in which electrical sparks or an BlGC? t'rical flame were caused to act on air pure nitric acid was never formed,-but a mixture from the bottom, that the e furnishes a mixture of equal parts of nitrate of equal parts of nitric acid and nitrous acid was I always produced. Thus. Muthmann and Hofer have'already indicated in Bem'chte der Deutsch en Uhem'ischen Gesellschaft, thirtysixth yearly volume,No'. 2,

ectrical process and nitrite, the applicability of which is questionable and the oxidation of which to apurenitrate would offer'very great diflicul-- ties. Von Lepel confirms this fact in his work On the Combination of Atmospheric NitrogenEs ec'lally by Means of ElectricaZ D'ischarges ((xreifswald, 1903) on page 39 and indicates that it has yet to be determined whether the presence of nitrite in a commer cial article for manuring purposes which-is intended to serve as a substitute rar Chili salte himself then carries out the necessary experiments and reports in Ber'ichte' der Deck 1 2 schen ,Oheqmischen Gesel lschaft, :thirty-seventh year, N 0.4, page 719, that'the solution 4 tralized with sodium carbonate, furnishes a of nitric acid containing initrites, when ne u foodstuff for plants which is of thesame value as Chili saltpeter.

Also Schulz in his inaugural dissertation Einfluss 'von Nitriien auf Keime'und Wachstum 'von ,Rflanzen, (The Influence of Nitrites on the'Germination and Growth of Plantsf) Kcnigsberg, 1903, ,has taken up this question and has come to simi-" page 452, line 2 been employed. As a rule these discharges eter is injurious to the cultivation of plants. V

twenty watts.

- costs. of transport, as a certain .weightIofwa-f ter mustalways be transported withit, and,"

finally, this water has the-additional? mental quality that it cakes the substance mt'o lumps, and consequentlythe same can-' .not be spread "by. means ofthe manure-1 s rea machine. Moreover'nitricacidijs "not only the raw material in the manufacture of 'saltpeteri for manuring purposes, but it '6 5 also has another very extensive mdustrial-ap- I plicationfor example, in the manufacture of gunpowder-an application in which the As consequently nitrous; acid impairs the N ow it .has been found thatthe formation of nitrous acid in the production of nitric acid by an electrical method is considerably reduced or even entirely avoided without'the yield'of nitric acid being diminished if those nitrogen oxids" out of which nitric acid" is formed are rOdueed by treating the nitrogen-oxygen mixtureTair) with electric discharges in the production of which (contrary to the experiments mentioned above) less than one hundred and twenty watts have will be produced in a secondary. circuitithe energy in which is produced by suitable transformation from a primary circuit the power in which is, less than one hundred and This secondary current then possesses a high potential and comparatively small strength, and its discharges generate a higher percentage of the nitrogen' oxids which form nitric acid. It is obvious that it is also possible to produce-the dischargesdirectly by a-source of current which, with a total power in the circuit-of less than one hundred and twenty tentiaL The percentage of nitrous acid diminishes with the diminution of the power employed inthe primary circuit. If one were to employ, for example,v apo wer of two hundred watts and over, a mixture of equal'parts of nitric and nitrous acid would names-weed, as mentioned above, so that consequently fifty per cent. of the latter would be present.

watts, suppliescurrent at'suitably high po- A When using a power of one hundred. and fifty takes place exa'c'tly with the diminution in the power employed,?and when a very small power is employed the production of nitrous acid completely ceases, and pure nitric acid is formed. v One arrangementof ap'paratus for carrying out the present process is illustrated by way ofexample .in the accompanying diagram. In said diagram, 1 is a source of Current, such as a dynamo. .2 is the primary current; 3, the transformer; 4, the secondary circuit, and 5 the spark-gap.

Having thus described my invention, what I 1 claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is- I ,1. The process of oxidizing nitrogen, which consists in subjecting a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen to the action of an electric arc employing a maximum energy of one hundred and twenty watts; I 1

2. The process of oxidizing atmQSPheric nitrogen, which consists in subjecting-air to the action ofan electricg erc employing a maximum energy of one hundred and twenty watts.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

ALBERT NEUBURGER. Witnesses I HENRY HASPER, Wo-LnnMAR HAUPT. 

